Article excerpt

An attack by masked gunmen on an engagement party in a small
village in southeast Turkey, which resulted in the deaths of 44
people, is being seen as a reflection of both the troubled region's
ancient traditions and volatile modern politics. According to locals
in Bilge, a village that sits on a small hilltop about 12 miles from
the city of Mardin, there was a decades-long dispute between the
attackers' family and the family of the would-be groom. The semi-
official Anatolia news agency reported that the masked attackers had
wanted the bride-to-be to marry one among their own group of friends
or relatives, but that her family would not allow it. The bride,
Sevgi Celebi, the groom, Habib Ari, his mother, and his sister were
all killed, as was the imam who was presiding over the engagement at
time of the attack, according to the agency. Turkish officials said
eight suspects were in custody, caught with their weapons. "Honor is
very important in this region, and it's very difficult to change the
traditions that deal with honor. They are a very strong part of this
society," says Mazhar Bagli, a professor of sociology at Dicle
University in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Experts believe
dozens are killed each year in "blood feuds" in rural Turkey.
Efforts to stop the feuds' violence have been limited, mostly left
to individuals such as Sait Sanli, a former butcher in Diyarbakir
who helps broker peace treaties between warring families. But
Professor Bagli says the fact that the families involved were part
of the "Village Guards," a well-armed militia set up by the Turkish
government in the 1980s to fight the rebels of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), meant something more than tradition was to
blame for the massacre. …

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